Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Great Britain (HSE UK MSD statistics 2025) - Executive Summary
- kmanoharaselvan
- Dec 17, 2025
- 3 min read
The Health and Safety Executive’s latest statistics confirm that work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WR-MSDs) remain one of the most significant and persistent health challenges facing the UK workforce. Despite long-term improvements prior to the pandemic, progress has stalled, and MSDs continue to place a heavy burden on workers, employers and the wider economy.
The Scale of the Challenge
In 2024/25, an estimated 511,000 workers were suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder, including both new and long-standing conditions. This equates to a prevalence rate of 1,470 cases per 100,000 workers. Over the same period, 7.1 million working days were lost as a direct result of WR-MSDs, with each affected worker losing an average of 14 working days.
MSDs accounted for:
27% of all work-related ill-health cases
20% of all working days lost due to work-related ill health
These figures underline that MSDs are not a marginal issue, but a core driver of lost productivity, absenteeism and long-term workforce health impacts.
What Parts of the Body Are Most Affected?
The distribution of WR-MSDs by affected area shows a near-even split between upper body and back injuries:
Back disorders: 43% (221,000 workers)
Upper limbs or neck: 41% (211,000 workers)
Lower limbs: 15% (78,000 workers)
Back-related conditions alone accounted for 41% of all MSD-related working days lost, highlighting their disproportionate impact on both individuals and organizations.
Trends Over Time: A Plateau After Progress
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of self-reported WR-MSDs showed a general downward trend. However, the most recent three years show little further improvement, with rates now broadly comparable to pre-pandemic levels in 2018/19.
A similar pattern is seen in working days lost per worker. While long-term reductions were evident before 2020, recent data suggests that progress has stalled rather than continued
Industries with the Highest Risk
When averaged over 2022/23 to 2024/25, several sectors stand out with significantly higher MSD rates than the national average (1,180 per 100,000 workers):
Construction: ~2,000 per 100,000 workers
Transportation and storage: ~1,800 per 100,000 workers
Administrative and support service activities: ~1,700 per 100,000 workers
These industries share common risk factors such as manual handling, sustained or awkward postures, and physically demanding tasks, reinforcing the need for sector-specific prevention strategies.
Occupations Most Affected
By occupation, the highest MSD rates were observed among:
Skilled trades occupations: 2,630 per 100,000 workers
Process, plant and machine operatives: 2,470 per 100,000 workers
Elementary occupations: 1,730 per 100,000 workers
Caring, leisure and other service roles: 1,640 per 100,000 workers
Smaller occupational groups with particularly high rates include skilled construction trades, transport and mobile machine operatives, and elementary administration and service roles. These findings highlight that manual, repetitive and physically intensive roles remain disproportionately exposed.
Age, Gender and Workforce Demographics
Overall, there is no statistically significant difference in MSD rates between males and females. However, age is a critical factor:
Lower rates are seen among workers aged 16–34
Significantly higher rates are found among:
Males aged 45–54
Males aged 55+
Females aged 55+
This pattern reflects cumulative exposure over working life and underscores the importance of early intervention and sustained ergonomic risk management.
Workplace Size Matters
Workplace size also influences risk:
Small workplaces (<50 employees) show significantly higher MSD rates
Medium and large organizations have lower than average rates
This suggests that smaller employers may face challenges in accessing specialist health and safety expertise, ergonomic assessments, or structured prevention programs.
What Causes Work-Related MSDs?
Self-reported data from the Labour Force Survey identifies three dominant causes:
Manual handling
Working in awkward or tiring positions
Repetitive or keyboard work
Additional contributing factors include workplace accidents and work-related stress. Medical reporting through the THOR-GP network supports these findings, with heavy lifting and material manipulation identified as the leading contributors to clinically assessed MSD cases.
What This Means for Employers and Policymakers
The 2025 HSE statistics make it clear that WR-MSDs remain entrenched across large parts of the UK economy. While historic improvements demonstrate that prevention works, the current plateau signals a need for renewed focus.
Key implications include:
Moving beyond reactive assessments toward continuous, real-world monitoring of physical risk
Prioritizing high-risk sectors, occupations and older workers
Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises with practical, scalable prevention tools
Embedding ergonomics, task design and fatigue management into everyday operations
Reducing MSDs is not only a health imperative but a strategic one—protecting workforce capability, resilience and long-term productivity.
How SpatialCortex Can Help
SpatialCortex helps organizations move from reactive MSD management to proactive, data-driven prevention. By combining wearable sensing, AI-driven movement analysis and real-time ergonomic insights, SpatialCortex enables teams to identify high-risk tasks, postures and fatigue patterns as work actually happens. This allows employers to design safer tasks, optimize shifts, target training and interventions, and reduce injury risk before harm occurs—supporting healthier workers, more resilient operations and measurable reductions in MSD-related absence.
